What Erasmus+ 2028–2034’s New “Preparedness” Priority Could Mean for Staff Training

A new “preparedness” priority is proposed for Erasmus+ 2028–2034 — still not adopted law, but worth understanding since it’s aimed directly at what staff learn on mobility.

In our overview of the Erasmus+ 2028–2034 proposal, we mentioned a new priority sitting alongside the familiar green and digital ones: “preparedness.” It’s one of the more specific additions in the Commission’s draft, so it’s worth its own look — what it actually says, and what it would mean for staff training if adopted as written.

What the proposal actually says

The wording comes straight from the draft regulation itself. Recital 6 ties it explicitly to the EU’s wider Preparedness Union Strategy:

“In line with the EU Preparedness Union Strategy, preparedness, resilience, participation in democratic life and civic engagement should be fostered through a bottom-up approach, encouraging organisations and institutions to play a key role in fostering digital and media literacy, critical thinking, promoting civic engagement, and learning about democracy and citizenship.”

And it’s not just a recital — it’s written into one of the programme’s specific objectives, Article 3(2)(b):

“foster a sense of European identity and active citizenship, enhance solidarity and active participation in society and democracy, inducing a positive societal impact, greater resilience and better preparedness to anticipate, prevent and respond to risks of different nature.”

So this isn’t about disaster drills or emergency response training. As written, “preparedness” here means something closer to civic and informational resilience: the ability to tell reliable information from disinformation, participate meaningfully in democratic life, and think critically under pressure.

What skills this is actually pointing at

Reading the recital closely, three things come up repeatedly:

• Digital and media literacy — recognising disinformation and evaluating sources critically.
• Democratic participation and civic engagement — understanding and taking part in democratic processes.
• Critical thinking — as a general transferable skill, not tied to one subject.

These aren’t presented as a new stand-alone course category. They’re framed as things “organisations and institutions” should build into project content through a “bottom-up approach” — meaning the proposal expects schools and providers to work this in, rather than the Commission mandating a specific format.

Does this touch staff mobility specifically?

Yes, though indirectly rather than through a dedicated new action. The proposal’s broader reasoning for learning mobility already leans this direction — it describes mobility as building “critical thinking, problem-solving and communication skills, as well as improve[d] resilience, adaptability, autonomy and self-confidence,” and staff training in particular is framed as needing to keep up with the real pressures schools face today — which is where preparedness content fits naturally, rather than as a separate bolt-on module.

In practice, if this priority survives negotiation, it’s more likely to shape how existing staff training content is framed and reported — an Erasmus Plan or grant report might reasonably describe how a course touched on media literacy or civic education — rather than requiring a specific new course type.

What’s genuinely still unclear

To be honest about the limits of what we know: the proposal doesn’t yet spell out whether “preparedness” comes with its own reporting indicator, a required module, or additional funding earmarked for it. That level of detail typically shows up later — in implementing guidance or the eventual programme guide — not in the founding regulation. We’d treat any confident claim about exactly how this gets implemented as guesswork right now, including the direction of this post.

What this means today

Nothing changes for courses running under the current 2021–2027 programme. If this priority is adopted largely as proposed, we’d expect it to show up first as guidance on how to frame and report existing mobility content, not as a new requirement schools need to prepare for now. We’re continuing to track this through Council and Parliament negotiations and will update our 2028–2034 overview as the picture becomes clearer.